Flight Date: July 25, 2012 Projected Landing: Somewhere in CA Central Valley
Teacher Experiment Payloads
Insect Survivability
Insects of various species can be placed in sealed, unsealed containers to be mounted on top of the payload structure so that they can be monitored by a full flight video system. The insect's movement activity can be monitored with respect to time to be correlated to altitude, pressure, UV and radiation exposure
Effects on Photosynthesis Abilities of Algae Due to Space UV Exposure Samples of Algae from labs at NASA Ames that have some interesting characteristics that make them ideal for being taken to the Moon or Mars will be flown in sealed heated sample containers. Prior to launch and immediately afterward, teachers who have been trained to use a PAM Fluorometer will collect data on the samples to determine their ability for photosynthesis. Half of the samples will be UV filtered and the other samples will be exposed to near space levels of UV light for about 60 minutes.
Three Axis Accelerometer and GPS data logger
Flight diagnostic data will be collected by an Arduino microcontroller with position data every second and acceleration data in 3 dimensions 200 samples per second stored to an SD card. This data can be used to reconstruct the dynamics of the D-15 flight. In particular, the acceleration data can be imported to a spreadsheet and integrated to get velocity and position information that can be cross referenced with the GPS data. The diagnostic data can be used by other experiment teams to describe force extremes on the payloads.
Three Axis Magnetometer
A Honeywell precision magnetometer data will be collected at 200Hz using an Arduino microcontroller stored to an SD card. This information can be used to characterize the rates of rotation during flight, and also look for variations with respect to altitude as the payload platform climbs ~20 miles from the surface of the Earth.
Environmental Data: Pressure, Relative Humidity, Temperature inside, Temperature outside
IR and UV light Altitude Profile
Broadband IR and UV filters will be placed over an amplified hermetically sealed photodiode package and an unfiltered photodiode will be flown with data being collected and stored by an Arduino microcontroller on a SD card. The information will create a profile of intensity for those wavelengths with altitude.
Radiation Altitude profile
A Geiger counter integrated into an Arduino data logger will collect alpha, beta, and gamma radiation intensities throughout the flight to create a Radiation profile with respect to altitude. The Geiger counter shown in the image is a backup if the ordered unit does not arrive.
Remote Sensing
Images collected from a downward pointed still image 12MP digital camera can be used to compare to other satellite images (Google Earth or others) to look for changes in the state of land along the flight path.
Flight Date: July 25, 2012
Projected Landing: Somewhere in CA Central Valley
Teacher Experiment Payloads
Insect Survivability
Insects of various species can be placed in sealed, unsealed containers to be mounted on top of the payload structure so that they can be monitored by a full flight video system. The insect's movement activity can be monitored with respect to time to be correlated to altitude, pressure, UV and radiation exposure
Effects on Photosynthesis Abilities of Algae Due to Space UV Exposure
Samples of Algae from labs at NASA Ames that have some interesting characteristics that make them ideal for being taken to the Moon or Mars will be flown in sealed heated sample containers. Prior to launch and immediately afterward, teachers who have been trained to use a PAM Fluorometer will collect data on the samples to determine their ability for photosynthesis. Half of the samples will be UV filtered and the other samples will be exposed to near space levels of UV light for about 60 minutes.
Three Axis Accelerometer and GPS data logger
Flight diagnostic data will be collected by an Arduino microcontroller with position data every second and acceleration data in 3 dimensions 200 samples per second stored to an SD card. This data can be used to reconstruct the dynamics of the D-15 flight. In particular, the acceleration data can be imported to a spreadsheet and integrated to get velocity and position information that can be cross referenced with the GPS data. The diagnostic data can be used by other experiment teams to describe force extremes on the payloads.
Three Axis Magnetometer
A Honeywell precision magnetometer data will be collected at 200Hz using an Arduino microcontroller stored to an SD card. This information can be used to characterize the rates of rotation during flight, and also look for variations with respect to altitude as the payload platform climbs ~20 miles from the surface of the Earth.
Environmental Data: Pressure, Relative Humidity, Temperature inside, Temperature outside
IR and UV light Altitude Profile
Broadband IR and UV filters will be placed over an amplified hermetically sealed photodiode package and an unfiltered photodiode will be flown with data being collected and stored by an Arduino microcontroller on a SD card. The information will create a profile of intensity for those wavelengths with altitude.
Radiation Altitude profile
A Geiger counter integrated into an Arduino data logger will collect alpha, beta, and gamma radiation intensities throughout the flight to create a Radiation profile with respect to altitude. The Geiger counter shown in the image is a backup if the ordered unit does not arrive.
Remote Sensing
Images collected from a downward pointed still image 12MP digital camera can be used to compare to other satellite images (Google Earth or others) to look for changes in the state of land along the flight path.
Measuring Current/Voltage
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9028